PCOS Symptoms to Watch For, and What to Eat If You Have It
PCOS gets spotted late in Pakistan, usually because the early signs look like ordinary things. Periods that are a bit irregular. Weight that climbed faster than it should have. A few hairs on the chin. Each one on its own is easy to explain away.
In the video below, Ayesha Nasir goes through the signs she looks for, what actually confirms a diagnosis, and how she builds a diet around it. Here is the whole thing written out.
The symptoms she tells women to watch for
- Irregular periods
- Weight gain that came on quickly
- Dark patches or lines on the neck
- Darkening under the arms and on the inner thighs
- Hair on the chin and face
- Heavier body hair generally
Her rule of thumb is simple. If two or three of those are true for you, go and see your doctor. Not to panic, just to check.
She is also clear that this can start young. It can appear from around age eleven or twelve and stay relevant right through to menopause, so being a teenager is not a reason to dismiss it.
You cannot diagnose this yourself
She is firm about this, and it is the part most people get wrong. Reading a symptom list online is not a diagnosis. Confirming PCOS needs an ultrasound or hormone testing, ordered by a gynaecologist.
Two things she corrects along the way. You do not need cysts on your ovaries to have PCOS. What defines it is raised androgens, the hormones usually thought of as male. And the name itself is misleading, because the condition behaves as a metabolic problem more than an ovarian one, which is why there is a push in medicine to rename it.
You do not have to be overweight to have it
Lean PCOS is real, and Ayesha sees it. Women at a perfectly normal weight, sometimes underweight, who still have raised androgens and still have insulin resistance underneath.
It matters because these women get dismissed. They do not fit the picture, so nobody investigates, and in some cases the first thing that brings them in is difficulty conceiving.
Insulin resistance is the thing you are actually treating
Whichever version you have, this is the target. For women carrying extra weight, losing it is the main lever. For lean PCOS the weight is not the issue, so the work goes into the composition of the diet and into building muscle instead.
Her protein targets differ accordingly. Roughly 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight for typical PCOS, and closer to 1.6 grams per kilogram for lean PCOS.
What she puts on the plate
Carbohydrates, kept small and kept whole
- Half a roti rather than a whole one, made from multigrain atta or a wheat and jowar mix rather than white flour
- Oats, around three tablespoons, made into a pancake and used in place of bread
- One small slice of brown bread if you want bread
- Quinoa, about two tablespoons, soaked for three to four hours before cooking
- Rice at most half a cup, once a week, and not at night
Protein at every meal
Eggs, chicken, mutton, beef in half cup portions. She takes a moment in the video to defend chicken against the poultry farm rumours that circulate here, because a lot of women cut it out and then struggle to hit their protein at all. What she does rule out is processed and deli meat.
Vegetables, generously
Big raw salads, plus bhindi, karela, lauki and baingan. The vegetables she pulls back on are the starchy ones: potato, peas, carrot, turnip and arvi.
She also rules out the heavy oil and flour based gravies. Nihari, paya and haleem are the ones she names, along with halwa puri, which is worth reading about separately if it is a regular part of your week. See what a halwa puri breakfast actually costs you.
Fruit, with five exceptions
Banana, mango, grapes, watermelon and cherries come out, or get a pinch of dalchini with them if you are going to eat them anyway. Other fruit is fine, about a cup, at the mid morning and evening snack. Women with lean PCOS can be more relaxed about seasonal fruit, with those same five as the exception.
Dairy, sparingly
Kept low overall. Low fat milk in tea, and yoghurt in small amounts.
What a day looks like
She gives two breakfasts. Either two eggs or two kebabs with one small slice of brown bread, a handful of nuts and tea with very little milk. Or a besan cheela made from three to four tablespoons of besan with vegetables in it, two or three tablespoons of yoghurt, and tea. If besan suits you, besan roti works on the same principle.
Lunch is half a multigrain or jowar and wheat roti, with a little sohanjna powder worked into the atta, or the oats pancake instead. Then a large raw salad and half a cup of a protein based salan.
Dinner between seven and eight is the same roti options, or chickpea soup, or a daal, with half a cup of salan. No rice at night.
The kitchen additions she rates
- Haldi. Simply more of it. Two teaspoons per pot instead of the usual one.
- Alsi, freshly ground. A teaspoon over salad, and ground within about twenty minutes of eating it, because the oils in it do not keep once the seed is broken.
- Spearmint tea around six in the evening. This is the one with the most research behind it for PCOS.
- Dalchini or zeera water. A one inch stick of cinnamon, or a quarter teaspoon of cumin, soaked overnight in a litre of water. A glass on waking and the rest through the day. Her instruction is to run one for fifteen to twenty days, then stop and switch to the other rather than taking either continuously.
Movement
Forty minutes of walking a day is the floor, not the goal.
For lean PCOS she wants weight training specifically, and she takes on the fear that stops women doing it. Lifting will not rupture anything. That worry does not apply here.
The part worth holding on to
PCOS can be reversed. That is her word for it, and she says it plainly. It is a condition that responds to what you eat and how you move, and women who manage it do go on to conceive.
The order matters though. See a gynaecologist and get it confirmed properly first. Then build the diet around your actual results rather than around a video, including this one.
If you want that done for you, Ayesha builds PCOS diet plans around your reports and the food already in your kitchen. You can book a consultation in Lahore or online anywhere in Pakistan.
This article summarises Ayesha Nasir’s video and is general information, not a diagnosis or a personal prescription. PCOS must be confirmed by a doctor through ultrasound or hormone testing. Portions, supplements and protein targets should be set for you individually, particularly if you are pregnant, trying to conceive, or taking medication.
